Without You
by LayKay
Summary: Walter gets separated from the team during a job and when disaster strikes, they assume the worst has happened. Paige/Walter.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Scorpion.

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><p>Paige was tackled face down into the grass, Agent Gallo throwing himself over her to protect her from the nearby building that had just gone up in flames as they ran from it.<p>

They sat up slowly, Cabe swore under his breath as Paige looked around at their team, noticing someone missing. "Walter?" she asked, scrambling to stand up, looking desperately for her partner. "Walter. Walter!" She began moving towards the building, picking up speed the closer she got.

"No!"

"Paige, stop!"

"Wait!"

She ignored the calls from the rest of the team, Cabe and Toby managed to grab her and pull her back to the ground just before another explosion went off. "Walter," she screamed, struggling out of the grasp of the two men, but they both kept a tight hold on her arms.

"There's nothing you can do," Cabe told her. "Paige, there's nothing you can do. He didn't make it out… there's nothing any of us can do."

She shook her head, the heat from the flames stinging her eyes before Toby released her so Cabe could help her stand and lead her and the others away.

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><p>Paige returned to her apartment after dropping off Ralph at school, tossing her keys onto the table before she fell onto the couch. She hadn't gone back to the Scorpion headquarters with everyone else after the explosion and ignored the calls from them when the morning came. By the time she was ready to pull away from Ralph's school, she'd received two calls from Toby, three from Cabe and even one from both Happy and Sylvester.<p>

She figured it would be the end of Scorpion, or at least it was the end of her partnership with them. She couldn't bring herself to go back without Walter.

She didn't know how long she laid on her couch, staring up at the ceiling before her cell phone rang. She sniffled once, pulling a hand through her hair as she grabbed her purse from the floor and dug her phone out, ready to press the button to ignore the call but frowned when she saw the unknown number.

"Hello?" she asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she answered the phone. "This is Paige Dineen. What? He is? I'll be right there." She hung up her phone quickly and ran out of her apartment.

She drove quickly to the hospital, driving nearly as fast as she had when Walter was in the seat next to her, hours after meeting him. She parked in the visitor's lot and ran to the waiting room, skidding to a stop when she saw four familiar faces sitting in a row, separated from everyone else in the room.

Cabe looked up at her first, his chair closest to the door and stood as she came closer. "Where were you? We called…"

"I um… I didn't have my phone on me," she mumbled.

"You're a horrible liar," Toby told her, turning his head to look at her. "He's been asking for you."

She looked at Toby, then to Happy who was looking down at her lap and Sylvester, who had his head against the back of his seat with his eyes closed as he mumbled under his breath, before looking at Cabe again. "How is he?"

"He's breathing. He managed to crawl out of the initial explosion but the second one knocked him out. Come on, I'll take you to him." He turned and began walking down the hall with Paige on his heels before he stopped at a closed door. He stepped back, allowing her to push open the door and step into the room.

She looked at Walter, who was laying in the bed in the middle of the room and took a step toward him before she heard the door close behind her. She turned, seeing Cabe walk away through the small window before she continued to Walter's bedside.

His eyes where closed, his left arm was in a sling and his face was covered in bruises and cuts. She looked at the heart monitor next to his bed, the steady beating assuring her that he was indeed just sleeping.

She placed her hand over his, sitting in the chair next to his bed, deciding she would sit with him until a nurse came in and kicked her out.

She closed her eyes, almost falling asleep herself until she felt his fingers slowly curl around hers.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Scorpion

AN: I originally intended for this to be a one-shot but the idea of Paige nursing Walter back to health started nagging at me.

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><p><em>It was a fairly simple operation, at least Walter thought so. He'd located the building that housed a domestic terrorist group, hacking into their system so their team was a step ahead. Cabe suggested sending in a counter-terrorism task force but Walter insisted there was no time for them to get into motion, the terrorists would be gone.<em>

_They walked in together, with Cabe at the head with his gun drawn and Walter standing calmly next to him._

"_C4," Happy said, motioning to the pile of clay bricks stacked against the wall. "Enough to take out at least two city blocks."_

"_We should leave," Paige said. "There's nobody here."_

"_They're here," Walter told her, walking away from the group. "They have to be." He opened a closet door, looking down at the pipe bomb on the floor with a digital clock counting back from 40 seconds. "They knew we were coming. Everybody out," he ordered._

"_What? What'd you find?" Cabe asked, walking into the room where Walter stood._

"_Turn around. Everybody get out. We have thirty seconds." He walked back out of the room, motioning for the team to start moving towards the door._

"_Thirty seconds until what?" Paige asked, looking back at him._

"_Nothing good," he said simply, putting a hand against her back so she would move faster. "Ten seconds. Run!"_

_The team all rushed towards the entrance of the building with Walter behind the group, making sure everyone else was out. The other five ran to a grassy area far enough away from the building to be safe and threw themselves to the ground as the building blew. _

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><p>"Walter," Paige gasped as he opened his eyes. She stood up and moved her hand as if she was about to touch his hair but stopped, holding his hand in both of hers instead.<p>

He groaned softly, his dark eyes focusing on hers. "You came. Cabe said… he didn't know where you were."

"I was around," she told him. "I… I couldn't go to work without you. I tried, but I just… I couldn't."

"You can't abandon them. I promised we wouldn't abandon you yet the minute things got hard you…"

"I thought you were dead!" she yelled, interrupting him. "I thought you died and I'm sorry but I'm not like you guys, when someone I care about dies, I mourn. I don't have a switch were I can just turn off my emotions or… or see death as only a change in shape."

"I understand that but…"

"But nothing! I couldn't go back, not without you." She turned her back to him, wiping away the tears that had fallen from her eyes.

"They wouldn't be able to function without both of us," he said softly. "I'm not the only who needs your help, Paige. If I wasn't around, you would have to teach them how to carry on without me."

"And who's supposed to teach me?" she demanded, turning to look at him again. "Who is supposed to help me? God, Walter, for someone so smart you can be so extremely stupid sometimes."

"I recognize that," he told her. "I understand you were worried but I'm fine."

"I hate it when you say that! You're rarely fine and right now you're laying in a hospital bed after being almost blown up. If you could look in the mirror, you would know you're not fine. And I… I was past worried."

"Sit down," he said. She raised her eyebrows at him, crossing her arms. "Please, Paige. I have a mild concussion and you're yelling and pacing around the room, it's making my head hurt. Besides, if the past is any indication, you tend to get ill when you're upset so you should sit down and catch your breath."

"The only time I've ever gotten sick is after we drove in a Ferrari going over 200 miles an hour directly underneath an airplane and then almost crashed. I think that was justified," she grumbled as she sat down, putting one hand against her forehead.

"I would not have let us crash. Are we not going to talk about why you were holding my hand when I woke up?"

She bit down on her bottom lip. "Nope. Why don't you take a nap? You said your head was hurting."

He nodded, turning his head to look at her. "Will you be here when I wake up again?"

"Yeah," she whispered. "Yeah, I'll be here." He held his hand out to her, she smiled and put her hand inside of his and gave it a quick squeeze. "Now go to sleep. I'll be right here."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own it

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><p>"Look at you, sitting up," Paige said as she walked into Walter's hospital room. His bed was reclined to support his back. "How much pain are you in?" she asked as she sat on his bed next to his legs.<p>

"Pain is subjective," he said. "They want me to rate my pain on a one to ten scale. My doctor said I should be somewhere between five and seven but I've never experienced a ten so I can't accurately rate what I may be feeling."

"Fine, then don't rate it. Tell me what hurts."

He shrugged. "My back's a bit stiff."

"You broke your arm in two places, you have a compound fracture in your leg, you had to have surgery and you cracked three ribs, not to mention your concussion and your complaint is that your back is stiff?"

"Like I said, pain is subjective and they're pumping me full of morphine. That doesn't change the fact that I've been laying in this bed for the better part of three days. I'm not used to being immobile."

She laid down on the bed next to him on her side and slid her hand under his back.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his body tensing at the contact.

"Just relax," she told him, pressing her palm into his lower back, rubbing it softly with the heel of her hand. "How's that feel?"

"Better," he muttered. "Thanks." He turned his head to look at her and blinked, realizing how close their faces were.

"You're welcome," she whispered, not listening to her instinct that told her to move, her fingers now moving against the soft fabric of his t-shirt.

She lifted her free hand to touch his lips, watching his eyes as he glanced at her lips for looked back into her eyes. Slowly, but not slowly enough to allow herself time to talk herself out of it, she pressed her lips softly to his. He pulled away from her as if her lips had burnt him.

"I… I'm sorry," she stammered, pulling her hand free as she sat up. "I shouldn't have done that."

"That was inappropriate," he told her. She squeezed her eyes shut, not looking at him as she fought her instincts to cry or run away. "I'm your boss. Any action of physical intimacy in the workplace is inappropriate."

Paige nodded. "But we're not working, we're in a hospital."

"We won't be here forever. In a few days, I'll be released and we'll both be back and there's going to be tension between us that will distract us from our work and that could be dangerous."

"I won't let it distract me, I promise. We'll just… we'll pretend like it never happened."

"You know I'm not capable of doing that," he said, the corner of his lip curling into a half smile. "Even if I could, I don't want to. It was nice."

"You pulled away like I hurt you."

"You surprised me," he corrected. "I didn't realize you felt that way about me."

"You don't know as much as you think you do then."

"I guess that's possible. What I said about relationships at work, that's just a hypothesis and in order to find an answer we'll need to thoroughly examine all variables. My theory may, in fact, be false and in that case I would be willing to admit that I was um… wrong."

"You admitting you were wrong, I'm sold. So how do we test your hypothesis?"

"Well, step one would be to kiss again." Paige raised her eyebrows. "In order to gauge our physical reactions."

She let out a quick laugh. "Wow, you really know how to charm a girl." She leaned over to him, placing one hand against his chest and kissed him once more. When she pulled away, she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Outcome, favorable."

"Good morning, Walter," a nurse said as she walked in with a roll of gauze in her hand. "Time to change your bandages." Paige quickly began to move off the bed as the nurse moved the bed sheets to examine his leg but the nurse shook her head. "Your girlfriend can stay if you'd like."

"Yeah," Walter said, looking at Paige. "Yeah, I'd like that."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

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><p>"Morning, guys," Paige said as she walked into the Scorpion HQ with two bags of groceries on her arm. Sylvester, Toby and Happy were all at their respective stations working on projects and looked up when she walked in.<p>

"What are you doing here?" Happy asked, removing her welding mask.

"Nice to see you too. Just thought I'd stop by, see what was going on. Maybe make breakfast for everyone, get a good start to the day."

"That's not what I meant. Why aren't you with Walt?"

Paige shrugged. "I decided it was time to come back. It's been a week."

Toby left his desk and walked over to Paige, studying her face. "Walter's first psychical therapy session is today, isn't it? You can't spend the day spoon-feeding him mashed potatoes and Ralph's in school, you need someone to mother hen."

"That's not…" she began but Toby raised an eyebrow at her. "It was his idea. He wanted to make sure you aren't starving." She turned around, spotting a Tupperware container on the counter that was growing mold. "And judging by this, you are." She threw the offending container away and took the ingredients out of the bag. "Who's up for omelets?"

"As long as there's no peppers," Sylvester told her, not looking away from his blackboard. "I can't eat spicy food."

"He can, you just don't want him to," Happy added. "You might want to add milk and gluten to that."

"Okay," Paige whispered to herself. "So just fruit for Sylvester. Happy, what would you like?"

"I'm capable of making my own food when I get hungry. I'm not right now," Happy said, flipping her welding mask back down.

Paige nodded silently in response and looked at Toby. "As long as you feed me," he said with a smirk. "Or is that special for Walter?"

"Walter has an arm that's broken in two places and limited use of his other hand because of IVs." She grabbed an apple and handed it to Sylvester before putting the food she'd purchased into their refrigerator. "I'm gonna go get some clean clothes for him," she said before heading upstairs.

"Wait, I want an omelet," Toby called after her but she ignored him. "Horrible service. Fifty says most of her tips from the diner were because of how she looked in the uniform."

"I heard that!"

Happy shook her head, taking off her wielding mask and laying it on her table before she went into Walter's room, where Paige was opening his dresser drawers. "Underwear's on the top right, t-shirts next to them and if you're looking for pajama bottoms, folded on the bottom of his closet."

Paige looked at Happy then opened the top right hand side drawer. "How do you know where Walter keeps his underwear?"

"Live with a guy for almost three years, you learn some things." Happy sat down on Walter's bed. "He's like my brother," she clarified. "Listen, we've all known for a while there's something between you two. Well, all of us except Walter and now you're with him all the time at the hospital. It doesn't take a group of geniuses to figure out something gonna happen. If it hasn't already."

Paige took a deep breath, nodding her head. "I understand you're worried but I won't break his heart."

"It's not Walter I'm worried about. I've never seen him have a successful relationship that lasted more than a few months before it went south. You couldn't come to work because you couldn't be here without him, what happens when you can't stand to be around him?"

"That won't happen," Paige promised. "Whatever happens between us, I won't let it affect my job."

"You will. It's the way you're wired. Ask Toby if you don't believe me, you're different from the rest of us because you think with your heart and not your head. We do need you on this team, Paige."

"I'm not going anywhere and my relationship with Walter will not fall apart. I won't let it. I'm used to pushing Walter, pushing him to express himself, pushing him to talk to me and that won't change. I know how he is, Happy. I know how his brain works. And, yeah, it probably won't be easy but I'm used to a challenge, especially where he's concerned."

Happy nodded, standing up to leave the room. "He's been different since you came along," she said, stopping to look at Paige. "Happier. He… he actually smiles around you. It's weird but I like it. I don't want him to stop smiling so… don't let it stop."

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><p>AN: more WalterPaige next chapter but I wanted the rest of the team to get to comment on their relationship before it became "official", especially Happy.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

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><p>Paige watched Walter as he idly moved his fingers between hers as she laid next to him. "What are you doing?" she finally asked.<p>

"Studying," he said. "The length of your fingers, how soft your skin is."

"Well, it tickles," she told him as he ran his thumb along her palm. He apologized, beginning to move his hand away before she caught his hand, linking their fingers together. "I didn't say I didn't like it."

He looked at their hands, resting his head back against his pillow. "I talked to Happy."

"When did she visit?"

"She hasn't. None of them have. They don't like hospitals. She called though, told me about the talk you two had."

"Walter…"

He shook his head. "She's right. I've never been in a relationship that lasted more than four months. I can sometimes be a bit thoughtless and…"

"I know," she told him quickly then shook her head. "I didn't mean… I know you disappear into your work and I know you're not the best at communicating or sharing your feelings but I do know you have them, even if you act like you don't. I knew all that going into this, Walter. I'm not expecting you to be someone you aren't, as long as you don't expect me to be someone I'm not."

"I like you the way you are," he told her.

"Good. I like you the way you are too. In the spirit of sharing our past romantic failures, I just want to remind you that dating as a single mother isn't easy. I haven't been in a real relationship in years."

"What about Ralph's father? Your relationship with him was long term, wasn't it?"

She let out a breath. "Don't judge me, okay?" He shook his head silently before he continued. "I was with Drew for about two months when I got pregnant. We stayed together because of Ralph but we weren't happy. I wouldn't call it a relationship as much as a co-habitation, he didn't want me but he wanted to make an attempt to be a father, I guess. He was gone all the time and I ignored the signs because I wanted so badly for us to be a family and then I caught him…" she trailed off, shaking her head. "I just want you to know, you aren't the only one with a bad track record."

He listened to her tell him about Drew, looking at their hands as she moved her thumb across the back of his hand. "I want you to know, I'll never do that to you."

"I know you won't," she whispered.

Walter slowly slid his hand out of hers and lifted it to tuck a stray strand of hair behind ear then tracing her jaw with his fingertips. "I really want to kiss you right now."

She smiled and leaned toward him, stopping inches away from his lips. "What are the magic words?"

He blinked at her, opening his mouth then closing it again. "Please? No, wait, that's one word, you said words. Uh… pretty please?"

She laughed shaking her head. "Three words, nine letters. Say it and I'm yours."

"Three words, nine letters," he muttered under his breath. She watched him mumble words to himself. "There's an infinite number of three word phrases compiled of nine letters. How am I supposed to know what you're thinking?"

She shrugged her shoulders, drumming her fingers against his chest before she sat up. "Would you like a hint?"

He sighed. "Yes," he said as if it physically pained him to admit he couldn't figure out her riddle.

She laughed again. "Okay, the other day when you told me your hypothesis about us, you said you'd admit something. That's what I want to hear. I'm in this, as long as you are."

"Oh," he said. He took a deep breath before speaking. "I guess I can admit that I sometimes can be a bit misguided."

"That's nice, not what I want to hear though."

"Paige…"

"Say it."

"Come on…"

"Say it or I'm leaving."

"Seriously?"

She sighed as she picked up her purse off the floor and put it over her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, okay. Wait," he said, sitting up slightly as she stood then fell back against the bed. "Ow," he muttered, clutching his side as he closed his eyes. When he opened them, he smiled when he saw Paige still standing over him. "I was wrong," he finally muttered.

"See, was that so hard?" she said as she dropped her purse and moved back onto the bed with him.

"Yes." He put his arm around her as she laid down next to him again, resting her head against his shoulder. "You should know, I'm in a great deal of pain right now."

"Hate to break it to you but you saying you're wrong had nothing to do with that. You'll feel better soon, just relax."

He inhaled deeply then exhaled. "You owe me a kiss."

She smiled and leaned in to kiss him, putting her hand against his cheek. "So we're doing this?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we're doing this."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Scorpion

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><p>Paige smiled as she walked through the door of Walter's hospital room, holding a roll of bandages and a prescription for pain medication as he sat in a wheelchair with his right leg straight out in front of him. "Alright. You're sprung."<p>

"Finally. I can't wait to get back home and sleep in my own bed."

"Actually, I meant to talk to you about that," she told him, sitting down on the recently made bed. "You know, your leg will make the stairs at your place an issue."

He frowned, looking down at his broken leg. "I don't really have another option."

"You do. My apartment," she said, looking down at her lap. "I just… you know, there's an elevator to my floor and it's open enough that you can get your wheelchair around obviously there's no stairs in my unit."

"I don't want to intrude on you and Ralph."

"You won't. You know how much he loves you."

"I don't know about _love_ but if you're sure…"

"It'll be fine, Walter. It's only for a couple of months until your leg's better."

"Couple months," he repeated softly. "Okay. We'll need to call Happy, Toby and Sylvester to let them know."

"Done. Sylvester said you'd never go for it so I finally get to tell him I told you so. We'll just have to stop and pick up your things then pick up Ralph on the way home."

"Home. With you and Ralph. I think I like that."

She smiled and moved behind his chair to push him. "I don't want to be late picking him up."

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><p>Paige watched Ralph do his homework at the kitchen table as she sat on the couch next to Walter. "I don't think he understands you staying here. Like, what it means. He's acting normal."<p>

"He understands everything, Paige. How did you expect him to act? Throw a tantrum and start screaming at you?"

She shrugged. "Well, that's what I did when my mom moved my stepdad in."

"You were an irrational child."

"I was 17."

"You were an irrational teenager," he corrected.

"Okay, maybe I just wanted more of a reaction from him than just shrugging."

Walter smiled, watching the boy scribble down math problems before he slid out of his chair with his paper in his hand and handed it to Walter.

"Check it," she whispered.

He looked at the paper in his hand then to Paige and back to Ralph before he looked at her again. "I don't need to."

"I know. Just do it."

Walter looked at the paper, his eyes scanning the formulas. "They're all right. Good job."

Ralph smiled and collected his books, putting them back into his backpack. "Alright, time for bed," Paige told him. "Go brush your teeth."

The boy nodded and walked over to them, hugging Paige and kissing her cheek. "Night, Mom."

"Night, sweetie. I love you"

She couldn't help smiling when he repeated the motion to a very shocked Walter. "Goodnight, Ralph," he said, turning his head as Ralph went into the bathroom.

"Two full minutes, " Paige hollered to him before turning back to Walter. "He knows his homework's right but he still likes to be told he's right."

"He likes being praised for being smart instead of picked on like he is at school."

She nodded silently. "So, how about you? Are you ready for bed?"

"Yeah. I can sleep. Do you have some blankets I can use?"

"What are you talking about?"

"For the couch," he clarified. "I'll be fine if you don't but an extra pillow would be nice."

"Yeah, I can do that. I think you'd be more comfortable in the bed though," she suggested, motioning to her room.

"But where will you sleep?" he asked before his eyes widened. "Oh. Right. We're in a relationship now. Sleeping in the same bed is a thing that happens."

She couldn't help laughing. "I just thought, you know since you'll be here for a couple months, the bedroom would make the most sense. Your back's gonna kill you if you sleep on this couch every night, trust me.

He shook his head. "No. No, I look forward to sleeping with you… next to you. "

She helped him into his wheelchair and pushed him into her room. He grinned as he looked around the bedroom, painted a light purple color with a matching bedspread. "It's very clean."

"Were you expecting it to be a pigsty?" she asked as she pulled down the covers.

"I was expecting stuffed animals, to be completely honest."

"I'm a grown woman, Walter. I don't have stuffed animals."

He raised an eyebrow, turning his head to look at her.

"I donated them," she muttered. "Tax ride-off." She let out a quick laugh and shook her head as she pulled a cami and cotton shorts out of her dresser drawer.

"Okay, so do you," he began but cut himself off when he looked at her as she pulled her shirt off. "Oh." He turned his head away from her, his eyes falling on the mirror on the opposite side of the room that was reflecting her bare back until she pulled her sleep shirt on.

"What were you saying?" she asked as she finished getting dressed, noticing him staring across the room and couldn't help laughing. "You can look now."

He smiled, turning to look at her. "I just wondering which side of the bed you usually sleep in."

"Well, no one else has been in this bed for years, so I just kind of go in the middle. It's up to you."

He smiled at the thought that he would be the first man in her bed in years. "I'll take this side, then."

She nodded. "You're already dressed for bed as long as you're comfortable in those sweatpants. Do you want some help getting into bed?" He grinned and nodded, putting his good arm around her as she helped him stand to get into the bed then went to the other side and crawled in next to him. "Goodnight," she whispered, leaning over to kiss him softly before turning the lamp on her bedside table off.

"Goodnight." He stared up at the dark ceiling, drumming his fingers against his stomach. "Paige?" he whispered after a moment. "Are you asleep?"

She giggled softly, her upper arm brushing against his. "No. I thought you said you were tired. Or were you just trying to get me into bed?"

"You're the one who brought up going to bed."

She laughed again turning onto her side, Walter continued looking up at the ceiling until she poked his shoulder, prompting him to look at her. "So what do you wanna do?" she asked, running the back of one finger along his arm, leaving goosebumps in her wake.

"Whatever you want is fine," he whispered, his eyes dropping quickly to her lips.

She moved her hand to his shoulder, leaning over him as she kissed him. He placed his hand against her hip, where there was a sliver of skin exposed between her shorts and shirt. She scooted closer to him, her fingers curling into his hair at the nape of his neck as his lips left hers, moving to her neck.

"Walter," she gasped softly, tightening her arm around him.

He stopped kissing her, lifting his head to look at her. "What?"

She smiled, biting her lip. "Okay, babe, next time we're doing this and I moan your name, take it as a good thing."

He nodded. "You called me babe," he said with a smile.

"Yeah. What are you gonna do about it?"

He kissed her again, his hand back on her hip as he instinctively moved his hand upward, pushing her shirt up to expose her stomach. Without thinking, she moved one leg across his waist then sat up as she straddled him. She smiled at him, beginning to pull her shirt off when her knee nudged his side.

He closed his eyes, biting back a pained groan as his head fell back against the pillow. "What?" she asked, her shirt falling back down as her arms dropped. "Oh God, your ribs. I'm sorry." She quickly moved off of him.

"No. Don't. I'll be fine. Get back here."

She kissed him softly, laying against his side. "We have plenty of time," she told him. "No need to rush it tonight."

"Well, actually there is," he muttered.

She giggled, burying her face against his shoulder. "Sorry."

"But you're right," he admitted with a small groan. "We should wait until I'm not so… fragile."

She turned her head to look at him, keeping her head on his shoulder. "This is going to be a long two months, isn't it?"

"If you keep attacking me every night, it's going to be unbearable," he said, making her roll her eyes. "What you wear to bed doesn't exactly help."

"Well, I'd wear a moomoo to make you more comfortable but the AC's busted. I'd burst into flames."

"I doubt it gets hot enough in here for you to spontaneously combust but I don't want you to be uncomfortable nonetheless. I appreciate the thought though."

She laughed and kissed his cheek softly. "Goodnight, Walter."

He watched her as she closed her eyes, her head on his shoulder and arm across his chest until her breathing gradually slowed. "Paige?" he whispered, smiling when she didn't move. He pressed his lips softly to her forehead before he rested his head against the pillow again, his hand softly stroking Paige's arm as he closed his eyes.


End file.
